I am working on two big pieces: one on the Skripals and one on the Chagos Islands judgement. The Skripal piece in particular is occasioning a great deal of thought, so apologies for the delay. Nadira is away working so I am single parenting, which means very little Lagavulin, without which my brain synapses don’t connect properly. I hope however to get enough sparks flying and get the Skripal piece up today.

445 thoughts on “Sorry For the Silence”

Meanwhile a British born man, has been stripped off his British citizenship Tauqir Sharif, an aid worker/anti-Assad fighter has been told he’s no longer welcome in Britain. The Home office deems him to be a terrorist.

Of course men like Sharif, who fought with the rebels, hold information that would be very embarrassing for the British government if it came to light. So he and many other cannot under any circumstances be allowed back into Britain.

What I am sure,
is that the final destruction of Islamic State, with nobody left alive, is to stop them talking.
Who initiated I.S.
Who funded I.S.
Who built the weapons
Would supplied the weapons
Who devised the tactics
Who did the training

I don’t know about this case, but the power to remove citizenship under s. 66 of the Immigration Act 2014 is limited to naturalised citizens. I am not familiar with any legal provision that allows for a person who is a citizen by birth to be deprived of their UK citizenship.

(Then again, it’s not my field, so there might be a legal provision somewhere in one of the terrorism acts. There’s no limit to the mess that’s hidden in those.)

I seem to remember Thatcher threatening lefty councillors with surcharging should their councils go over-budget. Now we have millions of pounds bandied about like snuff at a wake and not a word is said.

Surprise surprise the JLM didn’t manage to leave en mass out of the Labour Party last night after huffing and puffing on Monday. They are finding it hard to blow the house down – with all that bluster. Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?

Hodge / Smeeth and co are performing another nursery rhyme at the same time – their version of the Grand Old Duke of York. Just as Grieve/Soubry did with the WA, as Letwin/ Cooper ‘cross party’ are doing, all the while not following through their words with actions.

They are delivering the neocon dream from the back benches, it’s not a theory it’s a conspiracy.

They are not dislodging the Labour members support, they are reenforcing it!

They are not blowing away their own strawman caricature of Corbyn – they are enhancing his realness in the publics eyes daily.

The Groaniad spins the utter failure with nonsense that some ineffectual body wants to find something AS that is not there! The British voters absorb daily that an ‘everyman’ like themselves, is getting a daily knocking, like themselves – the JLM and Board of Deputies seem to have created a true British underdog!

Whereas Jeremy Corbyn stood in the back row of the HoC chamber defending the Palestinians over years. I heard him speak at many gatherings too. He signed Early Day Motions. A decent human unlike the moral pygmies mentioned above. Shame on them.

I don’t agree, I consider it the duty of an MP to vote as their constituents would wish if they were perfectly informed, or at least if they were as well informed as the MP. No government by opinion poll, please.

Martinned is under 2 delusions: 1, he thinks MPs are properly informed, and doesn’t include the fact that MPs can – and have been – deliberately misinformed by the Govt.
2. That MPs always make the correct judgment, and that they can not be persuaded to vote contrary to this.

Martinned March 7, 2019 at 13:35

I don’t agree, I consider it the duty of an MP to vote as their constituents would wish if they were perfectly informed, or at least if they were as well informed as the MP. No government by opinion poll, please.

Billionaires here are rushing for the tax havens, according to Paul Morgan-Bentley of The Times, He is head of their investigations team. He was speaking to Ferrari on LBC earlier.

‘A third of British billionaires have moved to a tax haven
Paul Morgan-Bentley | Billy Kenber, Investigations Reporter | Louis Goddard, Data Team
March 6 2019, 5:00pm,

A third of British billionaires have moved to tax havens after an exodus over the past decade, a Times investigation has found.
They are among 6,800 Britons controlling 12,000 UK firms from low-tax jurisdictions. The Exchequer is denied billions a year but many of the bosses still reap the benefits of British assets.

Some have bankrolled political parties while living offshore as successive governments have failed to enact a law passed in 2009 that would have banned large donations from anyone resident abroad for tax purposes. Many have been awarded honours or hold titles, with at least one viscount, one baron, six knights and one dame among the billionaires.

Bahamas
No income tax, capital gains tax or inheritance tax, making the Caribbean island particularly attractive to older expats. Companies are not subject to direct corporation taxes and are not required to file accounts. The standard rate of VAT is 7.5 per cent.

British Virgin Islands
No personal tax on worldwide income, including dividends and profits from share or property sales, and no inheritance tax or tax on gifts. Foreign investors must pay stamp duty of 12 per cent if buying or selling property on the island. Popular with offshore companies attracted by privacy but this status is under threat after the UK government ordered it and other overseas territories, including Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, to publish a public record of share ownership by 2023.

Belize…paywall

What was that a frequent poster on here said earlier about everyone paying their taxes and to stop whining?

One would have to be blind not to notice the degree of glee with which are reported on this blog the various bits of news concerning the UK car industry after a hard Breixit – or indeed any sort of Brexit. Company X will leave, Company Y will freeze investment, Company Z will move production of some models elsewhere, etc.

And the same sort of glee is shown for news concerning other firms and sectors.

Now of course all of this may happen. But if it does, all this glee seems somewhat misplaced because what it would mean is that government would have to tighten the public belt somewhat. Obvious candidates would appear to be abandoning the Barnett formula (let Scotland raise the missing revenue by using its devolved tax powers), greater prioritisation within the NHS (should so much be spent on keeping the older, non-productive baby-boomers alive? Let them use their accumulated capital to contribute to the cost) and cutting down on military outlays (let our European NATO allies cough up more if they wish a solid defence). There are certainly further possibilities which could be suggested.

Perhaps Brexit will provide the stimulus for a radical rethink about the economic, social and military culture of the UK?

Yes, it may well lead to far tougher economic conditions and to the need for the government to cut spending. That was exactly my point. What I was also trying to say was that the glee shown at this prospect may be very misplaced – at least the glee which emanates from those who are doing well (basically, the baby boomers with their indexed final salary pensions and owning expensive houses), because they might end up doing rather less well post-Brexit. Those who are already losers can of course glee away to their hearts’ content because they will have little to lose.

I am not entirely convinced that the increase in social services budgets is all down to baby boomers, who are generally very healthy as a generation. (Goodness knows what we can expect of the health prospects of the current generation of techno-couch vegetables, apart from enlarged thumbs.)

How much money isnow being diverted to providing resources for all sorts of hitherto unknown children’s issues, as a result of Baroness Warnock’s 1978 report on Special Educational needs which created a monster. Its findings have been appropriated and exaggerated by educationalists and social workers, used to hijack resources to build a completely new state funded arm of the social services, driven on by middle class parents demanding full state provision for their children’s “special needs” to be analysed, studied, supported, if they turn out to be less than perfect.

Do people know that the name being used @ 10.29 is the name of a character in the film ‘Whistle Down the Wind’? When I contributed on the Lifeboat News, the same person channelled me using a different pseudonym. Hilarious.

No, you can say whatever you like. But I wasn’t thinking of your posts actually (which I usually appreciate). I was thinking of the glee contained in the posts from those who criticise the UK day in and day out and who seem particularly gleeful at the thought of the UK suffering various negative consequebces from Brexit. Their glee is very silly because they themselves live in the UK (in the case of some Scottish contributors whether they like it or not) and will themselves suffer those consquences alo,g with every other citizen. It just seems silly to express glee at the thought of something which is going to harm you yourself. It’s a sort of verbal masochism, isn’t it.

After the warplanes dropped the bombs killing 4000 people, did the boys with clipboards go in to find out the names of the casualties and their military or civilian status?

4000 killed and 300 injured? No war has figures like that, at least not unless most of the injured are rounded up afterwards and murdered. Normal would be something like three times as many injured as killed.

This is all lies. The figures probably spell out the birthday of the scumbag who answered the FOI request or something like that. They’re having a laugh. They have total contempt for the truth.

But don’t you remember, N_ – at the time of the last Gulf War, we were told by the MOD that there were special, secret sensors in the noses of planes and missiles (perhaps bullets too!) which ensure that only the bad guys are killed.

Add many noughts to the state broadcaster’s figures. They promoted the war from beginning to end.

‘Today, the body of media evidence that we have accumulated shows precisely the opposite. In particular, the bulk of BBC output on Iraq can be characterised by one word: ‘Newspeak’. In 2003, a Cardiff University report found that the BBC ‘displayed the most “pro-war” agenda of any broadcaster’ on the Iraq invasion. Over the three weeks of the initial conflict, 11% of the sources quoted by the BBC were of coalition government or military origin, the highest proportion of all the main television broadcasters. The BBC was less likely than Sky, ITV or Channel 4 News to use independent sources, who also tended to be the most sceptical. The BBC also placed least emphasis on Iraqi casualties, which were mentioned in 22% of its stories about the Iraqi people, and it was least likely to report on Iraqi opposition to the invasion.’
/..http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2016/823-the-great-iraq-war-fraud.html

Tell the BBC to try Medialens for some facts on the death toll and not to take the Iraq Body Count figures,.

Tension rising as Bloody Sunday decision nears, have the so called “Irish packages” turned you against Ireland yet?

“Victims’ families have called for the Northern Ireland secretary to resign over comments she made about the Troubles.
Karen Bradley said that killings at the hands of the security forces were “not crimes”.”

“Karen Bradley said that killings at the hands of the security forces were “not crimes”.”
Well, the Tory government act like a bunch of criminals so we shouldn’t be surprised at what this airhead says.

The “White Phosphorus Approved” “Equality and Human Rights Commission” is threatening to take action against the Labour Party for “anti-Semitism”.

I bet you couldn’t say that on Twatter or Faecebook.

A cowardly spokesman who didn’t allow his name to be published has arrogantly declared that his organisation has ‘engaged’ with the Labour Party “to give them an opportunity to respond.”

Can someone in the Labour Party please have the guts to “respond” by wiping their bottom on the babyburners’ letter and sending it back c/o the White Phosphorus Embassy or perhaps the Anti-Defamation League?

I would rather the Labour party dissolve so that a new party can be formed on an explicitly anti-babyburner platform than watch it allow itself to be beaten up by fascists, each time telling the goon who dealt the blow “Thank you, Sir; we promise we will try harder to do exactly what you want, Master”.

One wonders whether the CEO of the EHRC, a certain, Rebecca Hilsenrath, who declares in her EHRC biography that, she is an “active member of the jewish community and member of 2 synagogues” will recuse herself?

That’s what it’s come to now? No respect even for a statutory guardian of non-discrimination? Wasn’t the Labour party supposed to be in favour of equality? Does it matter that the ECHR was created by the Equality Act 2006 under a Labour government pursuant to a manifesto promise in the 2005 general election?

They are trying all means to grind Jeremy Corbyn into the earth, Falter of the CAA being the main player in the opposition.

CAA (not the Civil Aviation Authority)

[The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (September 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message]

The CAA was set up in early August 2014, after an increase in antisemitic incidents that accompanied the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.[5][6]
A grassroots campaign, it grew largely out of social media activity among those who felt more should be done to promote the Jewish community’s concerns after a meeting to discuss responses where a campaigner had her concerns dismissed by Board of Deputies president Vivian Wineman.

Tony Greenstein (expelled by the labour party) has a blog entry on the CAAs dodgy anti-semitism audit. According to the CAA, for their 2016 audit,

” …in Derbyshire there was a rise of 1050% in anti-Semitic incidents. Tykytyn asks whether a pogrom occurred in Derbyshire that year. In fact the number of such incidents increased from 2 to 23 and as the Police explained, the change was due to a difference in how they record incidents.”

“Wiltshire’s 514 Jews seem to have endured almost Nazi levels of persecution. There was a 13,900% increase in anti-Semitic incidents! Even the CAA realised that something was amiss and decided exclude Wiltshire entirely from their ‘audit’!”

Meanwhile as the Great Satan continues its sanctions against Iran, even after reneging on the JCPOA deal.

It’s most prominent partner in unpunished activities Israel, is threatening Iran, that it will take action if Iranian oil tankers put to sea. Iran has stated it will send naval escort ships with its oil tankers.

Listen out for the Great Satan’s favourite minion Britain pipe up that it will back Israeli actions in the Straits of Hormuz.

Article 233: The President of the Republic shall become permanently unavailable to serve by reason of any of the following events: death; resignation; removal from office by decision of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice; permanent physical or mental disability certified by a medical board designated by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice with the approval of the National Assembly; abandonment of his position, duly declared by the National Assembly; and recall by popular vote.

When an elected President becomes permanently unavailable to serve prior to his inauguration, a new election by universal suffrage and direct ballot shall be held within 30 consecutive days. Pending election and inauguration of the new President, the President of the National Assembly shall take charge of the Presidency of the Republic.

And so when the President is unavailable due to there not being a valid election, the president of the national assembly takes charge of the presidency. Which is what the president of the national assembly has done. Why that should be described as a coup escapes me.

Complete BS. Venezuela’s media is dominated by the billionaire class and is ferociously anti-Maduro. Meanwhile former US president Jimmy Carter has described Venezuela’s electoral system as the best in the world. Of course some will always choose to believe the talking points of those other renowned champions of truth, democracy and human rights – Donald Trump, Eliot Abrams and Bolsonaro.

This is a new meaning of not available. My little spies tell me that Maduro is not only present and available but also in charge of the Government. My little spy also tells me that he won an election carried out according to the Venezuelan constitution. My little spy also tells me that Guaido has bypassed the constitution in that he is third, not second in line and that he has not abided by the constitution in carrying out an election within 30 days. Did you say you were a lawyer?

@Jay: If the Carter centre is so positive about Venezuelan democracy, I’m sure they published a monitoring report about any Venezuelan election in the last five years. Please feel free to send me a link. I’ll wait.

As for Trump, this may well be the only thing he and I agree on. Certainly at this moment I can’t think of anything else.

@ciarán: You’re right. But expiry of previous term surely belongs in that list too.

From BBC: An Equality and Human Rights Commission spokesperson said: “Having received a number of complaints regarding anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, we believe Labour may have unlawfully discriminated against people because of their ethnicity and religious beliefs.”

So the EHRC have not even begun their investigation but have reached a verdict? Hmm. I wonder who the spokesperson was. Hodge or Austin?

The “may have” bit might be a clue that the spokesperson was talking about the threshold for opening an investigation.

s. 20 of the Equality Act 2006:

20 Investigations
(1)The Commission may investigate whether or not a person—
(a)has committed an unlawful act,
(…)
(2)The Commission may conduct an investigation under subsection (1)(a) only if it suspects that the person concerned may have committed an unlawful act.

They’re safe in the knowledge it will make no impression compared to another couple of years of dailly headlines about Labour’s ‘existential Anti-Semitism ‘crisis’. Simply allows them to insist they have given a voice to alternative POVs.

If they can’t find a way to talk about the Palestinians without opening themselves up to any Tom, Dick, and Harry who wants to accuse them of antisemitism, they should really get into a different line of work. Politics is not a profession for people who don’t know how to parse their words.

It doesn’t matter. This is politics, not linguistics. Being objectively right gets you two pieces of nothing if you’re convicted in the court of public opinion. Manipulating public opinion is literally a politician’s job. And if they suck at it, they should go do something else.

Interesting that Peter Beinart ( associate professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York, a contributing editor at the Atlantic and a senior columnist at Haaretz. His books include The Crisis of Zionism (2012)) makes a point about ultra-orthodox Jews that will test Macron’s plans:

“Consider the Satmar, the largest Hasidic sect in the world. In 2017, 20,000 Satmar men – a larger crowd than attended that year’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference – filled the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for a rally aimed at showing, in the words of one organiser: “We feel very strongly that there should not be and could not be a State of Israel before the Messiah comes.””

I’d disagree with his point about having a safe country for Jews, i.e.Israel. Antisemitism should be challenged everywhere, so that Jews can be safe in whichever country they choose to live in. Beinart makes the point that Zionism is prepared to make alliances with antisemites as long as they defend Israel, e.g. Orban of Hungary. Of course. antisemites want to kick Jews out. I’d say each person should be free to worship in whichever way they please in the country in which they live – J.S. Mill’s harm principle stands of course.

Watch as veteran reporyer Matt Lee, rips apart a US spokesperson, who repeats the utter lie that Guaido is the Venezuelan president in waiting.

“To make this even more absurd, Palladino’s key argument for Guaido’s legitimacy is that he invoked the Venezuelan constitution – except that constitution only envisions a 30-day period for an “interim president,” and only in case the normal chain of succession is disrupted, which it manifestly was not. Guaido declared himself president on January 23. His “mandate” has long since expired.”

A few words from the Grenfell Survivors and Bereaved – #Grenfell United.

‘Last night we had an update from the police about the criminal investigation into the Grenfell Fire. It was difficult news. We found out that criminal charges for the Grenfell fire are unlikely to be brought until 2021 at the earliest.

There are reasons for this. The police are working through millions of documents relating to the refurbishment of the tower. The Public Inquiry, although independent, is proving useful to the police but won’t finish until at least 2021. But it doesn’t make it any less of a bitter pill to swallow.

We are living in limbo with no individuals or organisations being held accountable and it is so painful for all of us who lost loved ones and our homes that night. We wait month after month, our lives on hold, for some kind of justice and progress.

Today your support matters more than ever. We need to make sure politicians know that what happened at Grenfell won’t be forgotten.

Please share this message to show your support:

We’ve been dignified throughout all of this, but underneath we’re angry and frustrated. There are companies and people still going about their business whose actions led to the deaths of 72 of our neighbours.

The week after the fire Theresa May promised us justice. Justice for us means accountability and change. Today we see little real change – thousands of people are still living in homes with dangerous cladding, people in social housing are still being mistreated by landlords and we still wait for any kind of justice. That’s why today I’m contacting the Prime Minister Theresa May to demand an urgent update on what the Government is doing for justice and change.

We will not allow this Government to let this fade away.

On days like today, when the news is hard, your support matters the most. Grenfell United is made up entirely of survivors and bereaved families from the fire. There is a long road ahead of us and your support is keeping us strong.’

‘SOME Malaysians were unhappy when the government banned Israeli athletes from competing at the World Para Swimming championships in Kuching in July. Subsequently, the International Paralympic Committee stripped Malaysia of the right to host the event.
This was seen as a missed opportunity for the nation because it turned down the chance to host an international event.

To understand why countries such as Malaysia cannot tolerate Israel, we should look at the historical beginnings and current developments………………..’

I while back I posted a link about Louise Ellman saying that ‘nobody in Gaza is innocent’. This was in relation to her calling for Chris Williamson’s dismissal because of his support for the Palestinians.. The quote from Ellman was queried by ‘Irish U’ suggesting that I had invented her remark to suit my purpose, I resented that and would point out that I am quite punctilious about accuracy.

Here is the quote:
‘Mrs Ellman said: “The problem is Hamas, who use these children as human shields, who give the children explosives, or sometimes force them to have explosive belts, and send them to blow up Israeli civilians.”

She later said: “How can they meet, and how can we be without a barrier, when Hamas are sending those very children with their explosive belts across to kill Israeli children and Israeli civilians? All of that has to stop, and nobody is entirely innocent.”‘

Lagavulin is the bee’s nads and no mistake but I do tire of the addition of caramel to the regular 16 yr old, which leads me to the 8 yr old or the more expensive cask strength stuff. Anyway, no wonder you always seen to be strapped. I wouldn’t mind so much myself if Islay wasn’t almost entirely run by multinationals siphoning off cash.